Sat 26 June protest against Army Show Room: withdraw troops from Afghanistan

SHUT DOWN THE ARMY SHOWROOM

BRING THE TROOPS HOME FROM AFGHANISTAN

PROTEST

1.30pm SATURDAY 26 JUNE

KINGSLAND SHOPPING CENTRE, KINGSLAND HIGH ST, DALSTON E8

(opposite Dalston Kingsland station)

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Ten Nato soldiers, including seven Americans, were killed on 7 June 2010, the day Afghanistan overtook Vietnam to become the longest war in US history.

The US has spent over $300 billion on the war in Afghanistan, where it currently has over 100,000 troops, at a cost of a million a year for each one.

Britain is spending £6 billion on close on 10,000 troops, who, at an escalating rate of deaths and injuries, have no other purpose than to bolster failed US war policies and to save the face of the politicians who took this country into an unjustified and unwinnable war.

Most people in Britain, according to the opinion polls, want the troops withdrawn. President Karzai's government is thoroughly corrupt. The continuing occupation only makes terrorist outrages more likely.

26 June is Armed Forces Day. We don't want any more soldiers being recruited or being sent to kill and to die. Young people should not feel forced to join up to escape rotting on the dole. Instead of cuts in public services, end the spending on the war in Afghanistan and on nuclear missiles. Put the money into education and jobs.

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Please join us at our protest outside the Army Show Room in Dalston and tell the Con Dem government to bring the troops home.

If you can help publicise the protest please contact me for leaflets.

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There will be similar protests outside army contact points in Hounslow and Bromley.

Justice Not Vengeance is organising other activities, including a peace walk between 25 June and 1 July from London to Colchester in support of soldier Joe Glenton, who is being held in military prison in Colchester for refusing to return to Afghanistan to fight in a war he longer believes in. For details of this, and other activities, go to http://unarmedforcesday.wordpress.com or ring Maya on 01424 431088.

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Gareth Jenkins
Sec. Hackney Stop The War

07764 616960

Free Joe Glenton Bring the troops home from Afghanistan Close down the Army showroom

Free Joe Glenton

Bring the troops home from Afghanistan

Close down the Army showroom

Lance Corporal Joe Glenton has refused to serve in Afghanistan and led the national Stop the War demonstration in October. He has now been imprisoned for speaking out against the war.

He needs our support for his brave stand.

What better place to protest at his imprisonment than at the Kingsland Shopping Centre where the Army showroom is attempting to disguise the reality of the war.

Come along and help campaign to end the occupation of Afghanistan. Thousands of civilians have been killed and hundreds of British soldiers have lost their lives in a pointless war to defend a corrupt regime. Sending more troops will do nothing but increase the threat of terrorism.

Come and protest. We shall be leafletting, petitioning and asking for support for Joe Glenton.

1.30pm

Saturday 12 December

Kingsland Shopping Centre

Kingsland High Street

(opposite Dalston Kingsland Station)

Naming of the Dead ceremonies, Sat 22 Aug in Hackney and Mon 17 Aug at the Cenotaph

Hackney Stop the War will be holding a Naming of the Dead ceremony next Saturday 22 August at 1.30pm outside the Kingsland Shopping Centre, Kingsland High Street, E8 (opposite Dalston Kingsland Station).

Over 200 British soldiers have now died in Afghanistan. This is a terrible waste of life in an unjustifiable and unwinnable war. Most people agree that it's time to bring the troops home.

Please join us to commemorate the soldiers who have died - and the tens of thousands of Afghan civilians who have also died so needlessly.

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NAMING OF THE DEAD AT THE CENOTAPH

MONDAY 17 AUGUST 12 NOON

To commemorate all the soldiers who have died, Stop the War will hold a Naming of the Dead ceremony at The Cenotaph in Whitehall at 12 noon on Monday 17 August, when we will read out all 200 names, together with the names of Afghan civilians to represent the tens of thousands who have also died so needlessly.

Stop the War is asking those who can attend to bring flowers if possible.

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Solidarity needed with Ibrahim Avcil, arrested and assaulted by the police for protesting against the Dalston army showroom

Solidarity needed with the army showroom protestors arrested and charged by the police. Further to last week's peaceful protestor's arrest, please read below the circumstances of Ibrahim's arrest in June:

Please find below a text that I have written explaining the circumstance of my arrest by the Police. We will be having a vigil on the day I return for my bail which is Wednesday the 05th of August at 10.30am. The vigil will be hold in front of the Stoke Newington Police station. It has happened to me today, it could be anyone else tomorrow, so I beleive we shall not stay silent, and get organised against the attacks on our right to protest and organise.

I am writing this e-mail to make you aware of my arrest and what happened.

On Monday the 8^th of June 2009 at around 15.35, I was walking through the shopping centre coming from the Natwest Bank, together with my brother in Law. As I passed Sainsbury, I was approached by a member of the security personal, who pushed me from the chest and told me “You cant enter this building” when I asked why he said that I was banned from the building, I made my way again towards the exit, the security personal hold on to my arm, I refused he hold me from the back and tried to put me on to the floor, whilst calling the police, by the time the police came I saved my self from the security personal and asked him to “please call his manager”. The police came without a single question put a handcuff on my arm (A cross handcuff) and 2 other officers came as well, and they drag me inside the shopping centre to the police booth in the Ridley Road Market. While dragging me officer PC 284 (Lewington) and officer PC 485 who refused to give me his details I had to write it down myself used words such as “Bend down you wanker”, You Fucking Bustard” and as we entered the police booth the officer PC485 intentionally hit my head on the edge of the glass door. When we went in side officer PC485 made racist comments about my looks, and clearly said “Fuck of back to your country”, I said I am a British citizen and he said “He does not give a Fuck”.

Before letting me go they said they want to take me to Stoke Newington Police station but because apparently there was no space there they released on Bail and on the bail paper they wrote down the offence as “Burglary”. The officer asked me to sign the bail paper with cuffs on my hand I refused he took them of. Although I told them 10 x that my hands were about to brake they were laughing. They released me on Bail told me I am not allowed into the shopping centre, they gave me nothing in writing to confirm this. As I left the office on bail Ali Aksoy chair of HRF was there to pick me up, while officer PC 485 was going past us all he clearly said “Come to Stoke Newington police Station we will show you”.

I went to the hospital straight after the release report has been given to me after x rays and state, That” He has minor head injuries, he has been examined and is being treated for biletaral soft tissue injuriesof the wrists and a possible fracture of the bone, he has been given a wrist sprint and we will review the x rays on 12 June2009”.

I am an active person within the community and the chair of a well respected organisation within the community. These acts of the police are unacceptable, I am not able to work now until the doctors agree that I am safe to work.

I demand an investigation in to this matter as soon as possible, and I will do all I can to make it as public as I can.

Ibrahim Avcil

RWCA- Refugee Workers' Cultural Association
GIK-DER- Gocmen Isciler Kultur Dernegi

Shut Down the Dalston Army Showroom - Protest on Sat 25 July

The deaths of eight soldiers in Afghanistan in as many days brings home the
urgency of our campaign to bring the troops home from Afghanistan and to
shut down the Army showroom in Dalston.

The media may try to ignore us or spin the figures. But the fact remains
that a majority of people in Britain want the troops in Afghanistan
withdrawn by the end of the year. They do not believe this is a 'good war'.
In reality Nato forces are protecting a corrupt regime under President
Karzai and an undemocratic bunch of drug-running warlords. It is a state
where the position of women is worse than it was under the Taliban.

The government claims that the war must go on to prevent terrorism on the
streets of Britain. But the longer the occupation continues the greater the
likelihood of terrorist outrages occurring.

If politicians really want to save the lives of soldiers (and the lives of
Afghan civilians, who are now dying at double last year's rate), they should
recognise that this is a pointless, unwinnable war and bring the troops home
now.

And we must get the army showroom in Dalston shut down. Youth unemployment
is now at a sixteen year high. We don't want young people in Hackney being
conned by glitzy images into an army career, with the prospect of death,
injury or mental trauma as a result of the Afghan war.

Join the protest at 1.30pm on Saturday 25 July
at the Kingsland Shopping Centre, Dalston, opposite Dalston Kingsland
station.

We shall be leafleting, petitioning and distributing postcards. Any help you
can give would be much appreciated.

Protest: 6.15pm on Tuesday 14 July at the Petchey Academy Shacklewell Lane E8 2EY

The Army Presentation Team is holding an evening for invitees only at 6.15pm on Tuesday 14 July at the Petchey Academy Shacklewell Lane E8 2EY. This seems to be part of the attempt we have seen in respect of the Showroom in the Kingsland Shopping Centre to promote the Army but conceal the reality what is happening to soldiers and civilians in places like Afghanistan.

Hackney Stop the War will gather outside the Academy at 5.45pm to distribute material to those going to the meeting, urging the shut down of the Army Showroom in the Kingsland Shopping Centre, Dalston.
Please join us. Contact me for further details.

Gareth JenkinsSec.

Hackney Stop The War

Public Meeting: Shut down the Army Showroom in Dalston Thursday 18 June

Public meeting

Shut Down the Army Showroom in Dalston

7.30pm, Thursday 18 June

Round Chapel, Powerscroft Road, E5, Lower Clapton

Speakers:

Councillor Angus Mulready-Jones

Jenny Sutton, College of North East London

George Solomou, Military Families Against the War

Lindsey German, Convenor Stop the War Coalition

Twelve soldiers were killed in Afghanistan in May this year. The death rate is now higher than at any time since the invasion in 2001.

And, at around a thousand major casualties a year, every British soldier in Afghanistan has a one in eight chance of being seriously injured or contracting a serious illness.

Why doesn’t the army tell visitors to its showroom in Dalston about these horrific statistics instead of presenting war as a video game?

Our petitioning shows that people are also concerned at the Army’s attempt to exploit youth unemployment in a poor borough like Hackney.

The war in Afghanistan is getting uglier by the week. British pilots are firing an increasing number of “enhanced blast” thermobaric weapons, designed to kill everyone in buildings they strike. The violence will get worse, warns Lieutenant General Jim Dutton, Nato deputy commander in Afghanistan.

Everyone should ask themselves: is this what we want for the people of Afghanistan or for young people here to become involved in?

Youngsters in Hackney deserve better. The choice shouldn’t be between rotting on the dole or facing death or maiming in Afghanistan. Money should be poured into education, not chopped from college budgets.

Protest: Shut Down the Army Showroom in Dalston, Sat 20 June. Defend the right to protest

Shut Down the Army Showroom in Dalston

Join the protest

Another British soldier has just been killed in Afghanistan. It's time all British troops were withdrawn - for the sake of the Afghan people and the servicemen and women sent to defend a corrupt and unpopular regime.

And it's time the Army Showroom in the Kingsland Shopping Centre, Dalston, was shut down. We don't want any more young people, faced with unemployment, falling for the glossy video images and being sent to kill or die or be maimed in Afghanistan.

We also need to defend the right to protest in the face of the outrageous arrest of one of our supporters, who was assaulted and racially abused, as he was walking to work through the shopping centre.

Join the protest at 1.30pm on Saturday 20 June

at the Kingsland Shopping Centre, Dalston

(opposite Dalston Kingsland train station).

Keep up the pressure!

Public Meeting: Shut down the Army Showroom in Dalston

Thursday 18th June
7.30 pm, Round Chapel
Powerscroft Road, E5
Lower Clapton

Speakers
Lindsey German, Convenor of Stop the War Coalition
Jenny Sutton, College of North East London
George Solomou, Military Families Against the War
Cllr Angus Mulready-Jones

More than 170 British soldiers have been killed in Iraq and more than 150 in Afghanistan. Young ex-servicement are three times more likely to commit suicide than their civilians counterparts. Shelter estimates that over a quarter of homeless people are ex-servicemen and women. Servicemen and women have no employment protection rights. There is a well documented history of bullying and racism in the army. Hundreds of young army recruits go absent without leave every year. 14000 servicemen and women leave the army every year.

CREATE REAL JOBS IN HACKNEY. BRING THE TROOPS HOME.